you you you you good evening ladies and gentlemen it is 5:30 and I will call this regular meeting of the Burnsville City Council to order it is our tradition to stand for a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance and we invite you to join us I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands indivisible with liberty and justice for all we have announcements this evening for our upcoming meetings and we have two proclamations and then we have one of the most enjoyable and celebratory events for us here at City at the city so upcoming meeting its regular council meetings are scheduled for Tuesday November 19th that meeting has been cancelled because we don't have a quorum and we have a meeting on Tuesday December 3rd at 5:30 p.m. we have a work session scheduled for Tuesday November 12th at 5:30 p.m. and Tuesday November 26 at 5:30 p.m. we also have a work session that is scheduled for a strategic visioning process and that's scheduled for Thursday November 14th and that will be at 1:00 p.m. and then we also have another strategic visioning process on Wednesday December 4th and that will be at 6 p.m. so our budget meetings are scheduled for Tuesday November 12th at 5:30 p.m. and then we adopt the tax levy and budget on Tuesday December 3rd at 6 p.m. and the public is invited to all of our meetings and they're all held here in the council chambers we have two proclamations before we get to our community builders award the first one is America Recycles day whereas the city of Burnsville is committed to developing a sustainable community by enhancing economic opportunities and community well-being while protecting and restoring our natural environment and whereas recycling and buying recycled products are a part of the strategy for a sustainable community because recycling protects our environment is a wise use of our natural resources and supports the economic well-being of our nation whereas participating in America Recycles day 2019 is one way citizens can help raise awareness about the need to reduce waste by recycling and buying recycled products now therefore i Elizabeth Kouts mayor of the city of Burnsville on behalf of the city council do hereby proclaim Friday November 15 2019 to be America Recycles day and call upon all of our residents of the city of Burnsville to join in the celebration of this important date by doing your part and recycling your old shoes and other items all types of shoes will be accepted in any condition at the Burnsville Ice Center Monday November 11th through Sunday November 17 the shoes will either be reused or recycled into new products and proclaimed this 5th 5th day of November 2019 the next proclamation is for Small Business Saturday whereas according to the US Small Business Administration there are over 30 million small businesses in the United States and they are responsible for 64 point nine percent of net new jobs created from 2000 to 2018 and whereas small businesses employ forty seven point three percent of the employees in the private sector and whereas 96 percent of consumers who plan to shop on Small Business Saturday said the day inspires them to go to small independently owned retailers or restaurants that they have not been to before or would not have otherwise tried and whereas 92% of companies planning promotions on Small Business Saturday said the day their businesses stand out during the busy holiday shopping season and whereas the city of Burnsville supports and celebrates our local small businesses that create jobs and boost our local economy now therefore i Elizabeth couch mayor of the city of Burnsville on behalf of the city council do hereby proclaim November 30th 2019 as Small Business Saturday and urge my fellow citizens to support small businesses and merchants on Small Business Saturday and throughout the year proclaimed this 4th day of November 2019 and now I'm going to move to the dais on that side for our community builders award ladies and gentlemen and members of the council tonight the city of Burnsville is proud to announce again that we will be presenting our annual community builders award and it has been 13 years we started this in 1998 so it's 20 so in 1998 during the math 21 years 21 years I looked on us as was we did this we started this in 1998 so it's been 21 years that we celebrate the people in our community who give back and do great things to make our community what it is today and along with that to be a community builder one of the things that I also do is to celebrate that you have made a difference and there is a symbol for making a difference and that is the starfish and so for receiving the community builders award you will also receive a starfish which will remind you that you make a difference so what is the story about making a difference and why the starfish there the story is by Lauren Isley and it is about a gentleman who lives by the seashore and every morning it is his practice to walk along the seashore early in the morning one morning as he went to walk along the beach he saw that the beach was just littered with starfish and as he walked he saw out into the distance someone who appeared to be dancing and as he got closer he saw that it was a young woman and he and she was going over to a gunnysack pulling out something and skipping and throwing it into the ocean and he said what are you doing and the young girl said I'm throwing starfish she looked back where he came from and said you can't possibly make a difference the Sun is rising and it's going to just kill all of them and she went over to her gunnysack pulled out another starfish and threw it into the ocean and said it made a difference to that one you see each and every one of us make a difference each and every day of our lives and it can be as simple as a smile an act of kindness a thank you or have a nice day you probably won't even know but even those simple words or that act of kindness could have helped that person make their day a better day and you have made a difference so Burnsville has recognized community builders every year presenting awards to individuals groups or businesses that have helped make a lasting impact in our community and to the quality of life of those who live here in Burnsville and ladies and gentlemen you all belong here this year on behalf of the City Council I'm proud to present twelve community builders Awards and I'd like to ask the winners when your name is called to come up here and you'll be presented with a community builders award and then I would ask if you would allow me to pin you and we would have a photo individually but after you have everyone has received the award I'm going to also ask the recipients to all come back and then we'll have one big photograph with everybody so we will begin it is our small way of saying thank you to all of you wonderful people who give back to our community and make the community of Burnsville what it is so Amburg cameron since moving to Burnsville in 2010 amber has been highly involved in a community and as chair of the international festival Burnsville amber puts in countless hours to ensure that the community has a successful day celebrating Burnsville diverse community in her role over the last several years she has led the committee and event to new heights increasing attendance and revenues amber pours her heart and soul into making sure every detail of the festival operates smoothly so that the community can enjoy a great day at Nicolette Commons Park amber also serves as a commissioner on the Ames Center Advisory Commission from 2014 to 2019 she was appointed to serve on Dakota County Extension committee in 2012 and became an inaugural inaugural member of the Fairview bridges parent and family Advisory Council in 2016 amber is a great asset to our Burnsville community and is very deserving of being named community builder and amber and if the council could please join me so that [Applause] and the next award goes to a mob octo a nob there she is for more than six years a knob has personally taken on an advocacy and educational role for Burnsville students parents and educators as an educational assistant at sky Oaks Elementary a novice praised as an invaluable part of the school staff who always has a smile a hug or kind word for students parents and colleagues in addition and not proudly and happily shares her East African culture from volunteering in Burnsville International Festival to creating displays and other local festivals she opens doors to conversations among friends and strangers alike a knob is one of Burnsville strongest supporters and civic partners in addition to being a parent educator and advocate her broad engagement has helped bridge divides bring people together and strengthen this great community thank you [Applause] the next award goes to Brian Ripley and brian brian has been working in Burnsville school system since 1980 while he retired as math and science teacher in 2017 he has had continued to be the school district's chess coordinator and coach of the Metcalf middle school chess team with Brian's help the school district now has chess clubs at every school making district 191 the only district in Minnesota that teaches all students how to play chess Burnsville high school now has more state chess titles than any team in Minnesota and more state titles than any other activity in the history of the school in addition brian has led Burnsville high school to a national title and Metcalf middle school to 31 state titles and 20 national titles only one school in America has one more thank you Brian for your passion and commitment [Applause] okay thank you so much nicely done now the next award goes to Scot Hilla cross town liquor and mr. Hill ax & crosstown liquor were nominated for this award by our Burnsville fire department for several years cross town liquor owner Scott Heller has supported Burnsville Public Safety departments fire and police by generously donating tags of 1919 root beer to be served at annual events including the fire department open house and the police department of tober fest fundraiser not only does cross town liquor donate the kegs they are delivered and picked up after the events thank you Scott and cross town liquor for supporting the initiative of our public safety responders and Scott you have done so much because I know that you also help senior citizens here in town [Laughter] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] our next award goes to frontline Church so if Reverend Sheldon and his wife crystal pastor crystal please come forward one of those nominators stated that you see all the people who are receiving community builders Awards tonight are being nominated by members of our community and those nominations come to us as the City Council and then and this is why they're up here so but one of the nominators stated that frontline has been the first church that I have ever seen so involved with their community from the moment I walked in the door I felt the love honesty sincerity authenticity carry and raw emotion that the entire staff and pastors offered day in and day out to the city of Burnsville Sheldon and crystal and your church members are constantly offering to volunteer and help the city for Van Slyke and small including parties and the plaza yes sweetheart okay Sheldon crystal and her members are constantly offering volunteer health to the city free events large and small including party at the Plaza the Burnsville fire muster and more you were at the International Festival faster Sheldon is also part of the Burnsville mobile volunteer network and frontline churches also recognized for their focus on behavioral and mental health and the way they opened their doors to those in need who may feel all other doors are being closed Thank You frontline Church for going above and beyond in your support and commitment to our Burnsville community and [Applause] [Laughter] [Applause] the next award goes to Jack Canelli mr. Burnsville Jack is preserving Burnsville his history one document at a time as a project volunteer for the Burnsville Historical Society he has personally tracked down and uploaded tens of thousands of photos news clippings documents and more to the Society's website Burnsville history org jack has been instrumental in finding and archiving pieces of Burnsville history from photos family histories historical term papers yearbooks news articles and more he then takes these items scans them and makes them available in a searchable format online this allows people minutes or oceans away from Burnsville to enjoy the city's history in addition he is always thinking about others who might be interested in a historical treasure he digs up sending a neat old photo or news clipping to the City County Chamber experience Burnsville and more when he comes across something he thinks they might be interested in thank you jack you just put something I'm not under facebook-page graduation from district 16 yes just it was a rickety old [Applause] and I forgot to tell everybody who received an award there the box is here for the awards so that you can in the nexus James call Brecht so James is a former Burnsville planning commissioner and most recently a member of the Burnsville Community Foundation board of directors over the past five years on foundation boards James has donated countless hours of design work and labor to complete the landscape and hardscape aspects of the Foundation's projects he also organized and implemented the community foundation siddhappa highway participation overseeing the cleanup of County Road 11 for the past four years James is also known for MC Indiana annual winter lighting ceremony and other foundation dedication events James's applauded as being talented generous and giving in his volunteer efforts for our community thank you James and I can tell you that I've seen this man at working after he spends 8 to 10 to 12 hours and his regular job he's out doing things for the community [Applause] [Applause] and the next one and I know John say bold John was nominated by his neighbor's on West 156 Street for organizing their annual nighty-night party for several years alone he coordinates a party for a hundred plus neighbors and has raised money for and coordinated a little free library in his neighborhood part John's neighbors say he is always looking for fun ways to make West Buck Hill a great place to live and thank you John and I know that John does so much because I did [Applause] [Applause] and the next award goes to mark and Holly rod and I know how it is here and for nearly nine years mark and Holly have dedicated their time and energy to support youth by mentoring through kids in kinship since 2012 they were paired with an energetic and inquisitive five-year-old nearly seven years later they are still with the child who is now almost 12 they get together nearly every week with their fountain and tea the mentee the Ross have mentored were referred to kids and kinship because of a need for opportunity consistency caring and support as well as getting connected to the community in recent annual survey their current mentee reported it's a very trustful and comfortable relationship where we are always trying new things I have gained people I can I have gained people I can trust and gain the knowledge of God's love mark and Holly Roth make a difference by supporting befriending and working with children who need confidence and support they also volunteer in other ways including their leadership of a community Bible study and with Feed My Starving Children and Holly [Music] [Applause] and our next recipient is Nancy sand oh the past 11 years Nancy has volunteered with the City Clerk's office every week helping implemented the city's laser fish electronic document content strategy by scanning thousands of documents editing metadata reviewing old documents and even typing in old head written city and Township minutes she also assists with filing mailing scheduling and other office tasks Nancy has also logged more than 4,500 volunteer hours at the Minnesota Zoo over the last 11 years she serves as an interpretive volunteer supporting the school's mission of connecting people animals and natural world to save wildlife Nancy volunteers efforts don't stop there as she also volunteers at her church and home owners association Nancy is an excellent example of a community builder and we're glad she chose Burnsville as her home and Nancy I am always standing in all of those documents [Applause] the next recipient is Nate Miller there he is nate is the founder of a local nonprofit chapter that serves Burnsville and south metro area which provides bids for kids so they are not sleeping on the floor his passion to serve the community and those in need is very apparent his nonprofits mission is no kid sleeps on the floor in our town by leveraging community partnerships Nate will deliver 300 beds within the South metro area this year many of which he will deliver himself Nate has partnered with Lowe's Northern Tool and others to get funds and labor support to accomplish his organization's mission he started this South Metro chapter three years ago and is now the National Director of chapter development in his time Sleep in heavenly peace has exploded to more than 100 chapters across the nation including a North Metro chapter in White Bear Lake Thank You Nate for all that you do for these [Applause] [Applause] and our last recipient is Tom Johnston there he is mr. Johnson tom has been proactively picking up trash from City boulevards and medians since 2008 and we see you all around town mr. Johnston thank you he provides his own bags and picks up litter on Burnsville Park when he from this - View Park - Neil Park as well as in both parks Tom also picks up litter on County Road 42 from Burnsville Parkway to 138 Street you can find him out several times a week with his pickup stick and bag on sunny days cleaning up all city tom says he is not seeking recognition but that he does this because he cares and he wants our city to look good that is so cool his work is very much appreciated from the residents who live in the several neighborhoods he covers and thank you Tom Tom I one of those who see you and I'm glad and privileged to see you today [Music] [Applause] [Applause] you can all come forward now so we can have a picture with everyone please [Laughter] [Applause] [Music] and now we move on to the next item on our agenda and this is the citizens comments this is the opportunity for anyone in the audience to address the council on an item that is not an apprentice agenda and not an application form that will be coming before us at a future date is there anyone who wishes to address the council anyone who wishes to address the council seeing no one we will move on the next item is addition to the final agenda and this is for emergency items only miss Moscone are there any emergency items to come before the body there are not madam mayor thank you members of the council thank you the next item is the consent agenda the consent agenda is a group of items that's considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion however an item on a consent agenda can be removed for a separate discussion and vote is there anyone in the audience who wishes an item on a consent agenda to be removed for a separate discussion and both anyone who wishes an item to be removed for a separate discussion and both miss Moscone I know madam mayor okay members of the council I would like for C please to be removed for a separate discussion and vote and why do I want for C to be removed for a separate discussion and vote because it is something for us to recognize and for our map our residents to recognize what wonderful work happens in the results of our triple-a bond rating and the bids that we received and I believe city manager Moscone are you going to be doing that or our finance director consent agenda there's a motion to approve the consent agenda in a second all in favor please say aye opposed say nay I was just yeah we got the vote for the consent agenda and everything is good and mr. I thank you you can please let our residents know as well as us I mean right yes I am happy to announce that we had some very good bids today on our bond sale annually we issue bonds for our street improvements to fund the special assessment portion of the street improvements and the utility improvements that go along with that additionally every year when we do that we look at our outstanding debt to see what can be called and refunded for interest savings if possible so we had a bond issue for 8 million dollars just a little bit over 8 million dollars today and we had six beds the winning bid was at an average for a 15 year total 15 years average of 1.6 3% which is excellent yeah we're very happy with that that will save us on the three issues that we refunded that will save us to over two hundred and ninety thousand dollars in debt service costs over the remaining life of that debt service so with that by Stanford questions any questions I just want to thank staff with miss Kelly and mystery for the great work that staff has done in for our financial management and getting us to this point and of course we as the council need to do our part in making sure that we take care of the assets of the community because that's what the bonding agents look at and because that's how we look at the value of the market value of our community but thank you there are things that we have control over and there are things that we don't control over so thank you very much to staff one-point-six is really good when you can see that we say that the city a lot of money when we make good decisions so with that members of the council emotion and did you have anything to say a motion to it to adopt the resolution to award the sale of the geo improvement utility revenue and refunding bonds council member workman makes them motion second by councilmember kini all in favor please say aye opposed say nay and no motion carries thank you so much great work then now we move on to the regular agenda and the first item and the regular agenda is a public hearing and this is a resolution to approve the contract for private development as the sale of the property to Lakeland investment and this item was continued from the October 22nd meeting and presenting this evening is mr. 9 house economic development coordinator mr. Neen house thank you madam mayor council the item of four years is a sale of a piece of remnant property left over from the 5 and 13th interchange back in 2015 as you can see from the site map on your monitors this parcel is landlocked it has no access Lakeland investments which owns the abutting property that has an office building on it has offered to purchase the property originally the city and the county entered into a JPA and that JPA call for a 55/45 split of any sale of the property but it was based on whatever was higher the appraisal or the sale price in this case on this piece of property the appraisal price is higher than the sale price the county amended the JPA to actually make the 55/45 split be based on the sale price as did the City Council two weeks ago and that has basically set the stage for this this property the offer before you is $45,000 the plan is that the developer the Lakeland investments would do either an office mixed-use our demo what they are looking at is possibly doing a building on the three parcels are possibly taking down their existing office building planning the whole four parcels into one large development due to those those differing ideas of what they might want to do we have had a in the contract it does state that commencement of construction will start ten years after closed that is obviously longer than we typically give but based on them trying to decide what they want to do in the market that's why that's in the in the agreement and they will be required to complete the project within eighteen months after their start there is a provision in the contract that will not allow them to resale the property without approval of City Council so that prevents any flipping for going on with the parcel unless of course something would come before council that we would actually like them to sell it then you obviously would have that option if there is any defaults over the ten years in the contract the city would retake the land and put it back on sale this one before the Economic Development Commission at their September meeting they recommended approval staff recommends approval I would certainly stand for any questions and this is a public hearing okay questions for mr. Dean house okay thank you mister Neen house this is a public hearing is there anyone who wishes to speak to this item anyone who wishes to speak to this item seeing no one I will close the public hearing members of the council we've been looking at these properties since not the thirteen and five interchange was completed and so here we are and we have someone who's interested councilmember Gustafson makes this motion second by councilmember schultz all in favor please say aye aye opposed say nay and the motion carries thank you the next item is also a public hearing and this is to approve the renewal of a currency exchange license for Burnsville check cashing and presenting is our city clerk miss Collins thank you madam mayor City Council Burnsville check cashing LLC was approved for a currency exchange location back in 2017 the minnesota statutes stipulate that the city will conduct a public hearing for any new or renewal applications they do have a renewal application at this time the police department is indicated there's not been any issues with this location and find no reason to object to the renewal this is a public hearing I stand for any questions any questions for mr. Collins thank you this is a public hearing I opened a public hearing anyone who wishes to speak to this item anyone who wishes to speak to this item seeing no one I will close the public hearing members of the council your pleasure councilmember workman makes the motion second second by councilmember Gustafson all in favor please say aye opposed say nay Anna motion carries the next item is also a public hearing and this is a resolution to vacate roadway and drain easement at 137 to zero country place in 704 East 138th Street as dedicated on the plat of country place edition and presenting this evening is mr. truth our city engineer good evening so this is the location of the proposed easement vacation it's two properties off of McAndrews and Country Place on the left is an aerial photo and then the right shows the plat that they were dedicated on it's from 1959 I here's a little closer view of the plat the roadway easement is 30 feet wide and the drainage easement is 10 feet wide with the space in between that's sort of substandard not normally what we'd see we'd have no need for these easements any longer not planning a road here we have no utilities in the easements and there's no private utilities amusements and that's showing what those easements look like on top of the aerial photo so staff recommendation is to vacate the 30-foot Road easement and the but drainage drainage meant and then dedicate a standard this is would be if it were platted today a standard 5-foot easement on either side of the common property line and a 10-foot easement along the street frontage a nice day for questions any questions for Miss desert okay thank you this is a public hearing I will open the public hearing is there anyone who wishes to speak to this item anyone who wishes to speak seeing no one I will close the public hearing members of the council your pleasure [Music] councilmember Keeley makes a motion second by councilmember workman all in favor please say aye opposed say nay and emotion carries thank you very much the next item is 5d and this is to review and approve the experience Burnsville 2020 organizational goals marketing plan and budget and presenting this evening is the executive director for experienced Burnsville Amy Burrell miss Burrell thank you madam mayor members of the council good evening this is my fourteenth presentation to the City Council and have a fourth every year to this evening the ligh anticipation little nerves but appreciate your time this evening I'm going to provide an overview for a viewing audience of who we are and what our main purposes as the destination marketing organization for Burnsville so we are DMO destination marketing organization or management organization we were established in 1987 as a not-for-profit corporation we're funded almost entirely by state lodging tax room taxes paid by guests that stay overnight their hotel motels we do receive additional funding from explore Minnesota tourism grants and our goal is to market and promote Burnsville as a preferred visitor destination and we currently have two full-time staff and one part-time staff we are governed by a board of directors which includes nine members two of which are here this evening Dan McElroy thank you very much and then council member Gustafson thank you and there's a list of our board members I won't go through all of them but it's a good representation of our hospitality and our business sector I mean you do have Articles of Incorporation and in agreement with the city of burns out and we do have bylaws that we've amended in 2019 and are looking to do a couple more changes before the end of this year I'm going to touch on a couple of items with our the agreement with the city of Burnsville the agreement that we currently are under Virgin ated in 2007 and then was amended in 2013 the agreement renews on an automatic basis on a calendar year unless there's any amendments by either party of the agreement and the agreements between the city and our board of directors I'm going to highlight a couple of the sections on the agreement which includes scope of services our organizational goals marketing and budget fiscal and our rep presentation from the city on our board of directors excuse me the scope and service scope of service and mission so per section 2.1 of the city agreement our broad goal is to provide promotional services designated to attract visitors to our community that wouldn't otherwise know and or visit our destination our mission as experienced Burnsville is to enhance the community by increasing the volume and spending visitors and Burnsville through promotion marketing and advocating for destination development continuation of section 2 there's highlighted items in that section that I want to cover which includes our promotional services we have a comprehensive website thats related to hospitality and hospitality businesses any fence as well as our activities which include and but aren't limited to social media advertising and marketing campaigns as well as we do some sweepstakes we also distribute promotional material when I started about 14 years ago 13 years ago we had a print visitor guy so since the origination of the 2007 agreement our scope of service has changed a little bit as we don't print as much as we had originally done so right now we print a distribute 10000 coupon booklets mm-hmm and we also have an online coupon book as well we assist meeting planners and visitors but their needs before during and after their visit to Burnsville we showcase Burnsville at industry conferences and events we highlight Burnsville within travel related organizations and we are working on informational programs for our stakeholders this year we held our first inaugural if you will social media workshop with one of our vendors - six digital and that was a great success and we're bringing up to six digital back during the first quarter to provide another seminar section three of the city agreement our organization goals marketing and budget we submit our next year's goals marketing plan and budget to the City Council by November 15th of each year pío this evening again we're a 501 C 6 not-for-profit corporation and then we provide our meeting agenda and minutes to the City Clerk's office following the review and approval of our board of directors we are currently meeting every other month which is new for 2019 we were meeting on a monthly basis as a board of directors and as an executive committee but we've gone to every other month for those meetings now and it seems to be working out well Curtin is our board of directors and section 5 fiscal on a monthly basis we reconcile our finances both internally and we also have a CPA that reconciles them for us as well and then we submit those to Kelly stri and I believe I have her title incorrect I have CFO but I believe it's director of financial services or something close like that we have an outside agency CPA that pereire provides and prepares the annual audit for us for on an annual basis and again that's reviewed by our board of directors and adopted as well as it's submitted to Kelly stri and her team for their review and submission to City Council and per the agreement we hear to secure a minimum of $50,000 and fidelity bonds to cover any of our officers and staff that deal with finances and section number six is the city representation on the board the City Council you appoint on two voting members to our board of directors a staff member in a city council member and the city appointees serve at the pleasure of the council and they are not subject to our term limits we do have term limits for the remainder of our board of directors and in 2019 some of our deliverables include an enhanced brand and logo and our messaging we're now local flavor local Flair experience Princeville with the emphasis still on our hashtags my Burnsville and including local flavor local Flair into our marketing and promotion and then some of our engagement and activity strategies include but aren't limited to our coupon book our social media which includes Facebook Instagram Pinterest Twitter and YouTube we represent Burnsville the destination at associations north destination international explore Minnesota tourism the Minnesota Association of CVB's the Metro tourism committee Minneapolis South which is a partnership between Burnsville Eagan and Lake the tour Minnesota Association in US Travel Association we're big in diaphragms so those are just a few of the organizations that myself and my staff are members of and attend different educational opportunities throughout the year we also are doing we're big into our email campaigns via our e-newsletter we do retargeting shego fencing native ads we run the sweepstakes and we do hash tag promotions I'd mentioned earlier our workshop that we did with 2/6 digital and we also have ongoing coaching and training for staff on a monthly basis with 2 6 so that we are all up on the latest trends for destination marketing we've done 10 photoshoots to date with our photographer and that doesn't include any of the offshoots that we do as staff with our iPhones and we have another photo shoot scheduled in November with sherry the photographer we've done 12 in-house videos and for partner videos that we've worked with our company storyteller media to promote to do to produce for my Burnsville videos and it's great to have brie Meyer from BC TV as a part time staff person with us as well so she's very good at video and so we take advantage of her her knowledge and her what she brings to the table there and then we are working as I said last year on a new website when here and that should launch in the next week or so I was hoping to have the site apply for you this evening but we are working on a couple things so fingers crossed it will all be up by the end of next week in addition I wanted to share some of the results that we have from our different engagement for our website we have close to 60,000 new users to our site as of October 31st and that's a 9% increase over where we're at a year ago this time we have close to our little over 67,000 sessions so that's new people that have come in that they new visitors to our website that's a 2% increase and this is always an interesting statistic but 68% of our traffic to our website is down via mobile via cell phone or tablet so it's very important for us to have a a nice responsive website for our visitors mm-hmm daily we update our website the different business listings and calendar of events we again our videos that we've produced we've also written and produced 12 blogs for our website content is king so we like to tell our story and we're doing that through our blogs and our content campaigns and we're also operating within our budget that was approved by our board of directors in City Council last year and again the website to launch and the fourth quarter some results from our social media we have over 4,000 likes on our Facebook page that represents a 24% increase over last year at this time Instagram we have a 64% increase so we make we broke the 1,000 mark a couple of weeks ago so we're very excited about that in the last 90 days we've had over 13,000 impressions to our Pinterest page we've had eight thousand impressions to our YouTube page 12 blogs and then are really close to hitting a thousand subscribers to our constant contact that's our e-newsletter that we're currently doing on a every other month basis and in 2020 we will be Gio a monthly newsletter looking ahead our board of directors held their strategic planning session in June of this year at Buck Hill had a great day where we reviewed this year's goals and objectives and then they spent a great deal of time at reviewing every goal and the objective and narrowed it down to three primary goals for our organization to focus on in 2020 and there to advocate for destination enhancing development enhance the awareness appreciation and support for the visitor for experience Burnsville and the visitor economy and the third goal is to increase experience Burnsville is capacity to enhance the impact of the a visitor economy through our strategic and our marketing initiatives looking ahead in your background you received a copy of our 2020 budget which was reviewed and approved by our board of directors and you'll see that as in past years we've done a conservative budget as it relates to our income and our spending we've again included a fund balance that we're working to invest down and make some purchases whether it be marketing or capital improvements we continue to enhance our website our new website and then drive traffic awareness and engagement to that that is our bread and butter that is our our visitor guide that we no longer print so everything we do the purpose the end goal is to drive traffic to our website because that's where we best tell our story and we're going to continue to build our content our blogs our digital strategies or social strategies our photographer type photography and our videography and then we're going to continue to represent Burnsville as the preferred visitor destination especially in the South Metro we have some key assets that really differentiate us from other communities the aim Center Buck Hill Burnsville center of the 42 corridor and all the redevelopment opportunities that we have and then we are going to look to create a hospitality Roundtable we've historically held meetings with our hotel general managers as you know we have eight Hotel motels right now a small audience so we thought how best to engage our hospitality community and not just limited to hotels but we're going to be reaching out to hotels motels our retail in our restaurants and attractions in Burnsville and in the region that we promote to get them all around the same table having conversations and then hopefully we'll be able to provide education be it through hospitality Minnesota or explore Minnesota tourism even Brian Madson with two six digital so that they can all learn what we're doing one to promote their business but then the more they are able to promote their own business the better we're able to tell their story to potential visitors and then in closing before they stand for questions a friend of ours in tourism and who we've brought to meet several of our board members more gas she's the president and CEO of visit Irving Texas she's a dynamite she's the person that you want to be in destination marketing but she has a great quote that she shared with all of us at our international conference a handful of years ago but I thought it was fitting for this evening and for Burnsville as we look to redevelop is that if you build a place where people want to visit you will build a place where people want to live if you build a place where people want to live you'll build a place where people want to work if you build a place where people want to work you will build a place where business has to be and if you build a place where business has to be we live in fact to building a place where people have to visit and with that I will stand for questions thank you very well to questions for Miss burrow yes councilmember work minded one quick question on the coupon books are you tracking the usage of those with the businesses that are good question and members of the council we do try to collect the redemptions that businesses have not everyone tracks the redemptions and then so it's a bit of a challenge so is I'm happy to talk with further on that if you have any recommendations but we're up to close to 30 different businesses that advertise in our coupon book and a lot of them have an online presence and what we hear from the businesses is that they just don't have the time or the coupons get misplaced or so it's hard to get a an exact number on it but we are in the process of renewing the coupons for the 20/20 book and we do people are very open with us and they say yes we get a lot of redemptions especially during this season or this month and if they don't get the redemptions they usually don't remove what most of them do renew with us Thank You councilmember Schultz so when you go back to those three goals that you came up to your your strategic meeting that you had in June could you explain to me what those three goals actually mean do you want like what the objectives are or yes like I I read the words but I am unclear of what they mean when put together together sure let me just flip to the page so advocate goal number one advocate for destination enhancing development so that is if an applicant were to come before the City Council that is the hospitality or tourism development or redevelopment we would want to be supportive of that of the business and our City Council through our actions whether it be the city staff reaching out to us to ask for our support and a proclamation or in a supporting statement that would be goal number one okay goal number to enhance the awareness appreciation and support of experience Burnsville and the visitor economy so that is all of us staff three of us and our board members nine board members sharing what we it is we do as an organization as a corporation with people in the community different organizations be at rotary the chamber Chalmers that type of organization or us sharing news within our Facebook page and our Instagram we do have a lot of local followers which is really great for that community engagement point so it's just a continuing to enhance that and share what tourism means to the community and then goal number three increased experience Burnsville capacity to enhance the impact of the visitor economy so the more opportunity that we're able to demonstrate to the potential visitor let's say they might be coming here for business and seeing two nights and then if they saw on our event calendar that fire muster was happening in our international festival perhaps they'd extend their visit through the weekend and possibly bring their family or friends with them to meet up with them so to enhance the economy so not just to come stay one night maybe have dinner at one of our local restaurants and then leave but then give them an opportunity to be able to say yes to stay an extra day okay and so how how do you do that like I like that yeah but how do you accomplish that through our marketing and our advertising initiatives and having our comprehensive website so on our website we have our different vlogs or different articles that talk about you know girls weekend in Burnsville Minnesota and it talks about the different shops that we have the different places they could go eat the different places they could go get their nails done different sporting activities that they might want to go to that's just an example does that answer the question yes it does absolutely does a lot of it is content driven and then so when we do a blog we write the blog we put the blog on our website and then we have a campaign that goes behind that a paid advertising campaign so we share the blog on our Facebook page and that's a paid ad if you will then we also do it with Twitter and if there's a video that we've created that would make sense to include it in the vlog take buck Hill for example buck Hill is EQ around destination we have a video that talks about that's all just Buck Hill focused about what you can do year-round be it summer on the never class or winter skiing boarding tubing we include that block so are that video I'm sorry so everything intertwines with one another and then we shared via our different social media platforms Pinterest for example we have all of our blogs in different boards on Pinterest so it's all intertwined driving back to the website to traffic back to the website okay so ease how do you get more new people to market to such as like for your constant contact ease D newsletter that type of thing how are how are you finding more people to market to okay um comes member hschultz members that the council we have a strategy behind everything that we do so if we write a blog on Buck Hill we'll take a buck he'll again we target different audiences and it's become it's definitely different the way we market and advertise than what it was in 2006 when I started because we were all about print we're all about our 1-800 number now someone stopped by our office today and they said does your phone ever ring and we kind of chuckled because our phone really doesn't ring especially on our 8100 an 800 number anymore because everything we do is we drive it to Burnsville and we don't advertise our 800 number anymore because people aren't calling and they want the quick answer so to back to for a facebook we're able to target what age group we want if it's male or female or we want to target everyone if we want to target and outdoor enthusiasts that like skiing snowboarding likes Mexican food because of Black Diamond you know that tie-in so we'd really drill it down we also have based on our socialist social media audit that we did a couple of years ago we have based on our Google Analytics and our Facebook and our Instagram profiles we're able to see who our top markets are that use our pages and then we know the top markets that we want to attract so we do get like I said a lot of local traffic which is great for the community engagement and visibility piece the likelihood that they're maybe staying overnight in our hotel is probably not as great as someone traveling from Duluth so we have a target market a primary and a secondary audience that we target through paid advertising and we do that not only with social media but we do that with our digital and we do that with our sweepstakes that we run so it's across the board that we're targeting okay those are those are my questions thank you you appreciate it yeah thank you yeah thank you I really appreciate looking at the strategic plan and all that you have done it was very clear when you put the tactics in place of how you address each of the goals so that was good and then you I look back at the budget and how you're spending money and more and more into the digital and social media that you concentrate on which is what you need to do if you're going to market this destination so appreciate that you also know what you're doing with regard to the target markets whether that's athletes who are coming here with regard to the summer tournaments and so forth and those folks so thank you yeah it was very well done great presentation having all of the your strategic plan your marketing plan and a budget all in place so appreciate all of that so members of the council any other questions for miss Burrell if not a motion to to approve the experience Burnsville our organization oles marketing plan and budget is an order do proof sorry councilmember Gustafson makes the motion second by councilmember Keely all in favor please say aye opposed say nay and the motion carries and thank you very much and thank you mr. MacElroy for being here former mayor McElroy thank you for being here and supporting the work of experienced Burnsville appreciate that and members of the council there are no other items to come before us this evening and a motion to adjourn is in order to a journey councilmember Keely makes the motion second by councilmember workman all in favor please say aye aye opposed say nay and emotion carries good night and thank you for being with us